Health, Faith and Blueprint

The Darius Goes West Foundation will ask supporters to take a giant leap Tuesday when it kicks off its annual series of fundraising events in Atlanta with the new television show “Dare Me For Charity”.

Designed to showcase and raise funds for charities in the U.S., the show travels from city to city in the ‘Dare Me’ tour bus featuring a platform that reaches up to 40 feet tall. Teams of people then jump off the platform onto a giant airbag pillow in an attempt to win $1 million for the show’s featured charity.

“Our audience is very youth oriented, so we thought it would be fun to sign up with “Dare Me for Charity” this year to help raise funds for Darius Goes West and to support Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy research,” DGW Foundation headquarters manager Barbara Smalley said.

The “Dare Me For Charity” event will be held at Northlake Mall on the 10th anniversary of “Darius Goes West Day,” a coincidence that prompted DGW organizers to extend the traditional weekend of events to a full week and to say thank you to the Athens community for its support over the years, Smalley said.

Accompanied by 11 of his friends and funded by money collected in piggy banks set up around Athens, Darius Weems, a 15-year-old living with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), left home for the first time in his life in 2007 and set a course for California, where he and his friends hoped to convince MTV to customize his wheelchair on the hit show, “Pimp My Ride”.

The result was an award-winning documentary and the start of the DGW movement that has since raised $1.5 million for DMD research.

“We also want to celebrate the fact that Darius continues to defy the odds,” Smalley said. “The average life expectancy of a person diagnosed with DMD is late teens, early 20s. Weems’ brother, Mario, who also was diagnosed with DMD, died at age 19.

Darius will turn 25 this September. It’s a reason to celebrate.”Those unable to make it to Atlanta still can attend a myriad of events scheduled in Athens this week, including a Texas Hold ‘Em poker tournament, a family carnival, a 5K that includes wheelchair access, and dinner and a show with Weems and his crew.

Looking back over the last 10 years, Weems said he’s proud of what he and his friends have accomplished and is humbled by his ability to affect young people and raise money and awareness of DMD.

“When we took our road trip, we never thought things would explode like they did,” said Weems. “It has definitely changed my life and being passionate about something like this has probably prolonged my life. It feels so good to know that DGW is still relevant after 10 years. And I definitely didn’t expect to still be around and relatively healthy after 10 years. That’s a gift.”

Proceeds from all events held this week will go to benefit Darious Goes West to support Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy research.

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